(l-r) Helen Litz and Judy Urbonas (Photographs supplied by Judy Urbonas).

You know, we celebrate extraordinary Manitobans all of the time... often, we celebrate what they have done... what they are doing... even what is to come. And then, other times, we celebrate their lives in their passing. We celebrate the legacy they've left behind. Today, we want to take some time to celebrate Helen Litz. Helen passed away on January 13th and when we had the honor of reading her name in our funeral announcements, we just knew that we wanted to talk about and share with you all what she has done in the Manitoba choral community and how she touched SO many lives.

Now, Helen's connection to Golden West goes back many years, when her Mennonite Children's Choir would be on tours, she would often have the arrangement that she would call in to the radio once a day and do a report so that the families at home could hear how they were doing. One of the recordings they did was also sponsored by Golden West Broadcasting and our CEO Elmer Hildebrand was an incredible support of the choir and Helen. We had the pleasure of sharing one of the pieces we still had in our music library, a beautiful "Mennonite Medley" in High German. 

So, to help us remember and celebrate Helen Litz, we asked a good friend and long-time colleague of hers to join us -- Judy Urbonas. Judy is an amazing choral conductor in her own right and you can hear all of her wonderful memories and thoughts about Helen in the AM1250 Audio Vault. 

Thank you Judy -- your love for Helen is unmistakable and your words were a perfect tribute to her.